


How To Love

by sadlonelyyogurt



Category: The Outsiders - All Media Types
Genre: Best Friends, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, One Shot, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, but then this just happened, originally they were gonna kiss or some shit, steve and soda are just friends in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:28:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22025584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadlonelyyogurt/pseuds/sadlonelyyogurt
Summary: “You know,” Steve said one night, as casually as he could, as he and Sodapop were closing up shop. “Yesterday my dad told me he loves me.”I think this is actually a character study or something but I'm not really sure and I wrote it in like half and hour so basically it's just a short little one-shot where they talk/think about their feelings.
Relationships: Sodapop Curtis & Steve Randle
Kudos: 8





	How To Love

**Author's Note:**

> enjoy! <3
> 
> (please let me know what you think)

“You know,” Steve said one night, as casually as he could, as he and Sodapop were closing up shop. “Yesterday my dad told me he loves me.”

Soda paused in wiping the counters for a minute, trying not to let his surprise show through. Steve didn’t like getting sentimental and stuff. He would only tell something so personal to Soda, because he knew Sodapop wouldn’t make fun, and he wouldn’t try to get Steve to talk about his feelings. 

When Sodapop didn’t say anything, as Steve had hoped he wouldn’t, he continued. 

“I didn’t tell him I loved him back or anything. And now I’ve just been wondering if I do. ‘Cuz like, he’s my dad, and I feel like I should love him, but he’s also… kind of an asshole.”

Soda laughed a little at that. Steve said it in a joking tone, and he wanted to be laughed at, but Soda knew what he meant. Steve’s father was mean and angry and almost always drunk, and some of the things he said and did to his son could definitely be counted as abuse. He wasn’t the most lovable father figure.

Steve wanted to love him, Soda knew that. Steve had loved his father, at one point, before his mother left and his father turned to alcohol. But if there was one thing Soda knew from growing up in his neighborhood, it was that family wasn’t the same as blood. Of course, he loved his own brothers to death and he still missed his parents every day, but he knew plenty of kids, kids like Dally and Johnny and Steve, who found family in people who weren’t related to them by blood. Johnny had always been kind of broken up about his home life, but he was lucky he had the gang. Dally never loved his father, not since the day he was born, and that was true. He said he didn’t give a rats ass about the gang, but they all knew he was lying. He hated just about everything, but when it came to the gang, he’d cared a whole lot.

And then there was Steve. Steve was rough and reckless and often angry, but he didn’t hate as bitterly as Dally and he didn’t love as passionately as Johnny. He cared about the gang in his own way, a way he didn’t know how to think about and he didn’t know how to show. He cared about Sodapop above all of them, his best friend since grade school, the one person who he never fought with and who never changed. The one person who could understand him, the only person he’d ever known to stick with him even after all the shit he put the people close to him through. 

He was scared he’d lose people and that’s why he pushed them away. That’s why he was always so angry. Sodapop, however, was staying put.

“Steve,” Sodapop said, because he could tell his friend was upset even when he pretended he wasn’t. “You’ll always have me.”

“Yeah, I know.” Steve sighed. He closed up the register and put on his jacket. “I ain’t ever gonna leave you either, buddy,” he said, strolling outside. Soda followed him. “When those crazy brothers of yours are fightin’ up a storm, I’ll be right here.” He lit up a cigarette and they both watched the smoke curl upwards. Soda chuckled quietly. They stood there for a minute, satisfied with eachothers company.

It was Steve who broke the silence. 

“Two-bit said there’s gonna be some crazy party over at Buck’s. Wanna check it out?” 

Soda grinned. “You bet. Darry’ll kill me, but I gotta have a little fun before I get old like him.”

“He’s twenty.”

“Well he sure acts pretty old. Do you think I’ll act like that when I’m twenty?”

“Soda, you’ll never act old.”


End file.
